TWO-WHEELED FUN IN BIRMINGHAM
Let’s not beat around the bush: most who go to Autosport International every year are primarily interested in car racing. For over 70 years, it’s been Autosport’s bread and butter in print. Over the past few years, though, we’ve given a lot more attention to bike racing. So it was heartening to see a nice bit of two-wheel representation at ASI 24.
Thursday’s stage proceedings were kicked off by WTF Racing – British Superbike squad OMG Racing’s offshoot – unveiling its new road racing project for 2024, with multiple Isle of Man TT podium finisher James Hillier turning up during the weekend. OMG Racing had a sizeable stand in the exhibition hall, showing its BSB colours for the year ahead, its Wtf-branded bike, as well as a nice selection of machinery, including a Jpsliveried rotary Norton and the Honda Fireblade on which John Mcguinness made his 100th TT start.
Elsewhere in the halls, Loris Capirossi’s 2003 Ducati GP3 – the Italian marque’s first Motogp bike and first race-winner – stood on display alongside Andrea Dovizioso’s GP13 from 2013, a bike probably most famous for being one Valentino Rossi really didn’t want to ride! BSB and TT squad FHO Racing had a stand with Peter Hickman’s 2022 Superstock Tt-winning BMW and Josh Brookes’s M1000RR from TT 2023, both resplendent in dirt and a massacre of flies on the front bubble. Duke Travel also had Hickman’s lap record-smashing BMW Superstock bike from last year’s TT on show, while bikes featured in the Live Action Arena. LEWIS DUNCAN